This invention relates to the improvement of oral hygiene, specifically to a method for forming a caries preventive coating for the purpose of reducing the degree to which teeth are affected by dental caries or decay.
It can be said that one of the most important clinical characteristics of dental caries is that they occur selectively on certain locations of teeth depending upon the type and portion of the teeth.
Among the different type of teeth, the molar teeth suffer most easily from caries, followed by upper and lower incisors. Among the permanent teeth, the first molar teeth are especially easily affected.
Among the parts of teeth pits and fissures of the molar teeth suffers most easily from caries, followed by their adjacent parts.
For the deciduous teeth, the situations are somewhat different from those described above for the permanent teeth and a more detailed and specific consideration of the teeth characteristics is needed. That is, among caries between adjacent teeth, those between superior middle incisors and between first and second deciduous molars are affected at a higher degree than the others. It is also another of the most prominent characteristics that, among the labial surfaces, the neck of the upper incisors are affected at a much higher degree than the other surfaces.
The characteristics described above can be advantageously utilized when searching for preventive measures. That is, it is possible to prevent caries more efficiently by taking preventive measures selectively for parts suffering more easily from caries by means of physical or chemical means.
Preventive or curative means against caries, which are brought into practice at present, are as follows:
(A) Case of incisors PA1 (B) Case of permanent molars PA1 E. I. Cueto and M. G. Buonocore "Sealing of Pits and Fissures with an adhesive Resin: It's use in caries prevention." J. of Amer. Dental Assoc. Vol. 75. P. 121-128, 1967
(i) Fluorine coating PA2 (ii) Chemical plating PA2 (i) Amalgam plugging PA2 (ii) Excavation and removal of affected part PA2 (iii) Resin plugging
A technical disclosure about caries prevention is written in the following reference.
The traditional methods mentioned above have a common disadvantage that various substances cited above have an insufficient adhesion to the surface of teeth, thus they have little durable effect. According to the chemical plating process it is possible to obtain a relatively perferable adhesion due to its adhesion mechanism. However, the substance utilized for plating turns black as a result of the accompanying hardening reactions, by reacting with protein. Therefore, despite its fairly good durability, it has a disadvantage from patients' aesthetical point of view.